No subject
I was thinking what to write about but lately I'm out of ideas. That's why this post comes now and it's basically a continuation of Rest (not REST). I'd rather not write about politics even though there's been a lot going on: the UBI referendum in Switzerland, Brexit and the EU, upcoming elections in the US, TTIP and TPP, coup in Brazil, ongoing situation in Syria, Russia and NATO, troubles in Europe, coup attempt in Turkey... So yes, I'm in the loop as much as I can be, just steering clear of becoming too engaged in all the discussions.
Programming: Not much has been happening on this front. Vesna is still working on her portfolio. We finished a game development course on Udemy using Unity, but still haven't really plunged into it in practice. Other priorities have come up, but once we settle them we'll have free hands to do something about it. I keep my fingers crossed for this year. I'm really interested in 2d game development. Hopefully becoming proficient in digital art will yield interesting results in this department as well.
Art: Speaking of art, I've been doing things digitally for a month or two. Most of the work has been concentrated on getting familiar with Painter application, but I plan on using Krita alongside it. It's still one sketch per day and focused mostly on simple tools like pencils and pens. However, I enrolled a course on digital watercolor. So far it seems like it's pushing me in the right direction. I'm less afraid of tackling it which is good. The transition from drawing to painting is proving to be a difficult one. All my work comes down to a single sketchy painting a day.
Social concerns: Still the same old here. Aside from the Great Barrier Reef and biodiversity loss, air pollution in big cities has become a growing problem. In Croatia, Plomin C power plant faced public backlash in form of a petition that stopped the project from going further. The country wanted to build a coal power plant without any regards to the carbon footprint. One of the interesting things I've stumbled upon is the Scubo water drone. Seems like I'll have to brush up on my Arduino skills as well. Also, two new things came up as an interesting read. One is a scientific article about how a vegan diet can reduce the global mortality by 6-10% alongside reducing the greenhouse gas emissions by 29-70% by 2050. The other is a piece about how we must change our economic system because switching to clean energy is not enough. There is a number of other factors that influence the climate change that we must address.
Everything else: I've read The Spirit Level. It's shows how inequality correlates with social and health problems in a society. I.e. for "physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies, and child well-being, outcomes are significantly worse in more unequal rich countries". Right now I'm back to fiction again. We were in Croatia briefly and I had to go back to traditional drawing during that period, which is my comfort zone. But I often get impatient so I'm just scribbling instead of thinking. This is a problem more often than not. Drawing/painting is like an exercise in patience. Also, my phone decided to finally die after a few attempts at fixing it. I ordered Fairphone2. It arrived today.